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This is one thing about Trek Tech that has always puzzled me. How do starships stop?

We know from the on-screen commands and actions that a ship at warp speed can translate to a sublight velocity within a few seconds. It is the slowing down from near light speed to a zero velocity that poses the problem.

The impulse engines all point in the wrong direction to be used for a retro-jet action and the Saucer and Battle section thrusters are used for station-keeping and fine maneuvering/attitude control of the ship.

I know that this aspect of Trek ships was considered and the idea of 'reverse thrusters' was mooted but the solution never went further than that throw-away idea and there is nothing in the Tech manual or elsewhere to suggest a method..

So, how does a Trek ship stop?

I have my own solution, but I am interested to hear other peoples ideas.

I personally believe that the impulse engine is primarily a field drive, with only a limited thrust component, so slowing down would be fairly easy.

As for the warp drive, the ship isn't really going so fast. I don't know if it's related to the Alcubierre warp drive concept or not, but slowing down shouldn't be an issue, because the ship isn't really decelerating, just not warping space as much.

According to the TNG Tech Manual, impulse engines reduce the inertial mass of a starship to make it easier to accelerate. Since momentum equals mass times velocity, and momentum is conserved, then simply reducing a ship's effective mass would automatically cause it to go faster, and conversely, increasing its effective mass would cause it to slow down. So all a starship has to do in order to decelerate is to dial back the mass-reduction effect of its impulse-drive field. Conversely, though, if the mass is reduced as much as possible, then that makes it easier to accelerate or decelerate with thrusters (assuming that the thrusters' reaction mass is not itself subjected to mass reduction).

And of course no starship ever "stops," it just matches velocity with some other object in space or goes into orbit of some other body. How much deceleration or course change is needed would depend on what the ship's velocity is relative to its destination or to the other vessel it's rendezvousing with.

__________________Christopher L. Bennett Homepage -- Site update 11/16/14 including annotations for "The Caress of a Butterfly's Wing" and overview for DTI: The Collectors

Perhaps the warp engines are caused to impart a momentary reverse-pulse of the warp field when the captain calls for "all stop." First cutting the ship out of warp, then pulsing to cancel the forward momentum. Once the momentum is below a certain threshold, the thrusters are able to handle the rest

^^That's not how a warp drive works, though. It doesn't impart any actual velocity, it just distorts spacetime so that a pocket of it moves forward FTL with the ship being carried along inside it. So a warp drive would have no effect on a ship's momentum.

__________________Christopher L. Bennett Homepage -- Site update 11/16/14 including annotations for "The Caress of a Butterfly's Wing" and overview for DTI: The Collectors

I personally believe that the impulse engine is primarily a field drive, with only a limited thrust component, so slowing down would be fairly easy.

I agree with you on this one, the way starships move around does suggest the impulse drive is indeed a coil drive specialised to work at slower then light speeds, also it would explain the tremendoes acceleration and the little fuel it uses. .

__________________"Sword is personal, brings slicing to a man, you getta that personal feedback, nuclear weapons?.. Meh, goes off big bang and you don't get any feeling.."

I personally believe that the impulse engine is primarily a field drive, with only a limited thrust component, so slowing down would be fairly easy.

I agree with you on this one, the way starships move around does suggest the impulse drive is indeed a coil drive specialised to work at slower then light speeds, also it would explain the tremendoes acceleration and the little fuel it uses. .

Add me onto this list as well - the technology needed for the kind of manoevering we see on screen is better explained this way IMHO.

__________________
I believe in a better world, so I love Star Trek. I have to live in this one, so I love Battlestar Galactica.